Glasgow’s Waste Crisis

GMB Scotland has called on Glasgow City Council (GCC) to secure the future of over 100 temporary cleansing jobs in a bid to tackle the on-going waste management crisis in many communities across the ‘Dear Green Place’.

Following GMB’s ‘Dirty Cuts’ expose of the working conditions of staff in GCC’s Land & Environmental Services (LES) last Christmas, the city’s previous administration introduced a £20 million funding package creating 134 new one year, fixed term posts across the department.

But with the new council leadership committing to the clean-up of Glasgow in the wake of the recent local government elections, GMB is warning that a failure to retain these jobs beyond 2018 would equate to a substantial cut in LES - with serious consequences for the city’s cleanliness.

GMB Scotland Organiser Benny Rankin said: “Glasgow needs sustained investment in LES if we are serious about tackling the shameful state of our city and the retention of these cleansing jobs would be a statement of intent by the new administration.

The city has been hammered by budget cuts over the last decade and its austerity shame is evidenced in rubbish strewn streets and living conditions in some of our communities that can only be described as Dickensian.

For our members it’s meant their working lives have become a health and safety nightmare, where contending with drug dens, excrement and vermin has become a daily occurrence while trying to manage Glasgow’s waste.

Through the new joint consultative forums put in place by GCC, we’ve told the new leadership that the only way to credibly address our waste crisis is by investing in more jobs and better resources - there is no other way around the problem.”